News in brief

Butterworth  
A student leader at South Africa's Eastern Cape Technikon has been shot dead in an incident believed to be linked to student council elections.

Washington DC 
For the first time since 1996, tuition fees at public universities in the United States have increased by more than those in the private sector and by nearly three times the rate of inflation, according to the annual College Board Survey. Over the past year, the rise in the public sector was an average 7.7 per cent.

Brasilia   
The Brazilian education minister has announced a higher education fees system based on family income.

Lomé  
Tuition fees at the University of Togo have been raised by 500 per cent to stave off financial disaster. France and the European Union suspended financial assistance to the university in 1993 because of a lack of political reform.
 
Copenhagen   
The Niels Bohr Archive is to release documents that could throw light on the 1941 meeting between the Danish atomic physicist and German physicist Werner Heisenberg. The meeting formed the basis of Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen.

Washington DC   
The American Association of University Professors has asserted the right of university faculty to speak out about the September 11 attacks and the bombing of Afghanistan. General secretary Mary A. Burgan issued the statement in response to "those who believe that thinking out loud in our colleges and universities is so subversive that it ought to be stopped".

Cambridge, Massachusetts   
Nine hundred Harvard alumni have signed a petition seeking the return to campus of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps 32 years after it was abolished during anti-Vietnam war agitation. Supporters include former defence secretary Caspar Weinberger.